OK, rolling back a pay raise may seem like a no-brainer, but the move did elicit the objections of Methuen Democrat Steven Baddour, the House Transportation Committee chairman who saw it as a "cheap political shot" at the Republican MBTA director Dan Grabauskas.

Well, not so cheap -- particularly when Smilin' Dan also decided to skip the $10,000 cost-of-living increase on his $255,000 salary.

I wouldn't go that far. But it is a sign of what we have become used to passing for "governing" on the state and federal level when an executive makes news by making sound fiscal decisions even when they may have political ramifications.

It doesn't hurt Deval Patrick that these decisions are coming at a time when voters are facing a ballot question to eliminate the state income tax. In many ways, they are largely symbolic and will only make a tiny dent, if any, into the tangle of bad fiscal nightmares that Massachusetts faces.